


Let Me Breathe with Your Lungs (One Last Time)

by STARfruitNinja



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Body Swap AU, Kimi no Na wa AU, M/M, Not Beta Read, Probably ooc, Swearing, Your Name AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 23:49:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21328726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/STARfruitNinja/pseuds/STARfruitNinja
Summary: “No rubber skin coming off,” Shinichi muttered, putting his hand to his chin in thought.‘Which means…’“I’m in another person’s body?” he thought out loud.
Relationships: Kudou Shinichi | Edogawa Conan & Kuroba Kaito | Kaitou Kid, Kudou Shinichi | Edogawa Conan & Nakamori Aoko, Kudou Shinichi | Edogawa Conan/Kuroba Kaito | Kaitou Kid
Comments: 18
Kudos: 156





	Let Me Breathe with Your Lungs (One Last Time)

**Author's Note:**

> probably ooc ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

When Shinichi awoke in a completely unfamiliar room, he felt a mixture of dread and exasperation fill his chest.

_‘Oh boy.’_ Shinichi thought, as he got up from the bed. _‘What’s happened this time?’_

With how many cases he dealt with on a daily basis, barely anything phased him now. It was hard to keep himself from feeling numb to all of the incidents at this point, but he tried his best. To be honest, a tiny part of himself was a bit excited, despite the potential for his life to be in mortal danger. Maybe he was kidnapped again; usually that meant another interesting case to solve and he always welcomed those. But he mentally berated himself to stop treating cases like games to stave his boredom. As he stood up, outside of the fact that he had no idea where he was, something was off.

_‘I’m...taller?’_ He glanced down at a pair of adult-sized hands and lanky legs, flexing them experimentally. A realization dawned on him. _‘Am I in my original body!?’_ He rushed to the mirror on the opposite wall, to find that himself proved wrong. He reached out to the mirror, somewhat disoriented at how the unfamiliar reflection mimicked his movements. _‘No, the face is very similar...but…’ _He turned the face at odd angles, tugged at his bangs, and touched his neck. This person’s hair was longer and a bit shaggier along the back, mussed from sleep, and there were some minute differences in eye shape and the jawline.

He pulled at his cheeks and searched under his chin for any signs of a disguise having been applied, despite the fact that he didn’t feel warm or sweaty from a mask. “No rubber skin coming off,” he muttered, putting his hand to his chin in thought. _‘Which means…’_

“I’m in another person’s body?” he thought out loud.

Shinichi wasn’t fully convinced. It shouldn’t be physically possible for someone to enter another person’s body. Then again, it shouldn’t be physically possible for a person to become ten years younger from a single pill. He didn’t remember taking one of Haibara’s test meds yesterday, unless he was drugged in his sleep again. Ugh, that’d be...bad.

Maybe he was dreaming? Seems like a reasonable explanation, probably the best case scenario if anything. A dream isn’t typically this logical, but considering some of the dreams he’s had before, this wasn’t anything new.

“Wait, what time is it?” The clock on the wall read 7:04 AM. While school was the least of his problems right now, he figured he might as well use it to gather more information. 

After scrounging around and digging through a few drawers, he found a student uniform. As he pulled the clothes on, he observed the room in more detail. It was a fairly standard teenage male room, maybe a little cleaner than average. The most noticeable object of interest being the large poster of the sharply dressed man who appeared to be performing a magic trick on the wall. _‘Likely a fan, I imagine.’_ Shinichi wanted to investigate in more detail, but he figured he should prioritize preparing for school.

As he packed the assorted textbooks and homework assignments scattered on the desk into the nearby book bag, he flipped to the inside cover, finding the name “Kuroba Kaito” scrawled in the corner. _‘That last name...’ _he thought. It sounded somewhat familiar, but Shinichi couldn’t quite place where he had last seen it. He shook himself from his thoughts. He had to get ready for school.

Shinichi was surprised to find no signs of anyone else on the first floor. There were no signs of any other family member in the house; the other bedrooms were empty, void of use outside of a distinct lack of dust. Did Kaito live alone? Hopefully Kaito’s refrigerator wasn’t completely empty. Shinichi didn’t want to wander around without any breakfast.

After flushing his mouth of toothpaste, he tried to desperately tamp down his unruly bedhead with water but to no avail. It was only with some hair wax that he dug up from the corner of a drawer that he managed to flatten the stubborn strands into a much neater style.

After hurriedly cramming a couple of bread slices into his mouth, finding exactly which school he was supposed to attend proved harder than he had expected. He had grabbed Kaito’s smartphone, planning on it to find the location of nearby high schools, only to find it locked with a pass code. Cursing his luck, he stuffed his hands in his pockets, picked a random direction, and started walking. He had no idea if he was even in the same prefecture that he lived in. Well, it beat being on a random street in a foreign country; at least he was in Japan.

Shinichi did notice how Kaito’s house was significantly larger than the average Japanese home as he began walking. _‘His parents must be at least somewhat well off, especially since this neighborhood seems to be of a similar affluence_.’

He began considering skipping school when he heard the sound of a metal gate closing behind him and a loud voice interrupted his train of thought. “Bakaito! What are you doing!?”

He almost didn’t respond; he had forgotten to respond to this new alias. He turned to find a girl in a dark school uniform, hands on her hips and appearing rather huffy. “Are you thinking of skipping school _in your uniform_!?”

With that manner of speech, they must be close. _‘...Girlfriend, perhaps?’ _he thought offhandedly. “Sorry, sorry!” Shinichi said, jogging up to her. Guess he picked the wrong direction. “I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going!”

“What’s with your hair? Why did you make it all fancy?” the girl inquired, turning and walking away.

"Oh, uh..." _'Damn, figures why the hair gel was buried so far in the drawer,'_ Shinichi thought.

"Do you have something to go to after school? Lemme guess, you have a..." She tapped her finger to her chin, "job interview to go to! So you tried to look all slick and professional!"

"Uh, yeah!" _'That works. Thanks for making my job easier.'_ Maybe he'd wash his hair out at school or something.

"Don't underestimate a detective's daughter!" She grinned cheekily.

Shinichi perked up at that information; maybe he knew this person.

The girl leaned a bit towards him, and he instinctively flinched. She looked a lot like Ran. “Hmm... you're pretty quiet today. Are you still half-asleep or something?” She said.

“Yeah, I, uh, stayed up late doing homework.” Shinichi replied.

“Really? That’s not like you.” She frowned, tilting her head a bit, “You usually finish your homework early.”

“Uh...” Shinichi desperately searched for a generic enough response and mentally cursed the girl's nosiness. “I was watching something last night!”

“Another magic show?” The girl sighed. “I mean, I know you love magic but you really have to watch your health...” Shinichi tuned her nagging out and let his thoughts drift. _‘Her face is a little different, so is her hair, but Ran mothered me a lot in highschool too, back in the day.’ _He sighed audibly. _‘Brings back memories; when we used to walk to school and all that...’_

“Kaito!” Shinichi hadn’t even realized she asked a question. “Are you even listening to me?” she scolded.

_‘Honestly, no.’_ “Y-Yeah...” he replied.

“You’re so scatterbrained today!” she exclaimed. “Gosh, you’re always...”

Shinichi sighed internally. _‘Maybe a little more annoying than Ran...’_

  


Turns out Kaito attended Ekoda High School, which thankfully meant that he was within the Ibaraki Prefecture and not too far from Beika. Although he did find himself in a series of rather uncomfortable situations; the first of those being when he was forced to awkwardly hover in contemplation at the entrance of the school, not knowing where Kaito’s shoe locker was located, prompting a concerned frown from Kaito’s friend as she pointed it out.

He followed the girl to her classroom, figuring that there was a high chance that they shared homeroom; even if they didn’t, he could probably figure out how to have her show where it was. Thankfully, it seemed as his former assumption proved true as he took the closest empty seat to her once the bell rang without any confused stares by the surrounding students.

Shinichi discovered a few things from making small talk before homeroom and throughout the school day. The girl’s name was Nakamori Aoko, indicating she was the daughter of Division Two’s Detective Nakamori. Although, Detective Nakamori likely had only a vague recollection of Edogawa Conan, Shinichi had met him formally after the Tower Heist with KID. 

There was a strange young woman by the name of Akako, who muttered some nonsense about Lucifer and demons.

“A thread.”

“Huh?” Shinichi glanced up from his textbook during the work period to find her standing before his desk, a smirk on her face.

“It connects you to another.”

Shinichi cocked his head to the side in question.

She leaned forward and whispered in his ear. “Whoever or whatever you are, wearing Kuroba’s skin, know that if I discover he is dead, I will not be so merciful.”

Shinichi froze at her words. She knew. Or perhaps she was just psyching him out. He couldn’t play into her hands. “Hah, Akako, you say the weirdest things!” He laced his fingers behind his head and kicked his chair back. 

Her grin only widened. She brushed her hand on his shoulder as she passed by. “Just a warning,” she uttered.

He couldn’t shake the goosebumps that spread from where she touched him for hours.

Turns out Hakuba also attended the same class as Kaito and they even seemed to be good friends. Although Shinichi felt Hakuba’s suspicious gaze trained on him throughout the day which made his hair stand on end.

At the mere mention of Kaito KID, his classmates and friends all seemed to expect him to defend the thief in some way. This prompted an awkward stare-off after Aoko declared her eternal hatred of the Phantom Thief in support of her father and the entire group had turned to him, expecting some sort of retort. It was likely that Kaito was a fan, since he also seemed to enjoy and participate in general stage magic.

And lastly, everybody seemed gradually more expectant of him to pull out...something as the school day passed. It was only when Hakuba sarcastically remarked, “No magic tricks today, Kuroba?” did Shinichi suddenly understand why each teacher kept shooting nervous glances towards him. This proved rather awkward yet again considering the only magic trick Shinichi could probably perform was lamely appearing to remove his thumb.

Shinichi found class rather monotonous. Admittedly, it was marginally more interesting than elementary school lectures. Even though he was missing roughly half a year of his compulsory education, he was already ahead of his class and usually took a spare moment in the day to flip through Ran’s textbooks. He did find some rather amusing doodles and comments in the margins of Kaito’s textbooks, which kept Shinichi entertained throughout the day. Little drawings peppered the margins, the Kaito KID insignia, notes and diagrams for a few magic tricks, and even doodles of Aoko, Akako, Hakuba, and Kaito himself.

This was proving to be an interesting dream, to say the least. That is if, hopefully, it was a dream. A niggling thought in the back of his mind said otherwise, that, his brain was unlikely to have dreamt up a character as complex as Kuroba Kaito. While it went against his common sense, Shinichi decided to leave something for this Kaito person to see in his textbook. Perhaps this was a dream and nobody would ever see it. But if there was any chance that it wasn’t, Shinichi will have left some sort of proof that this event had happened.

  


He had spent all of his lunch trying to remember the origins of where he had heard the Kuroba name. It really felt so familiar, he swore that he had seen it somewhere... Well, he could probably find some records in the old Kudou Mansion. He could just visit it after school— Oh, wait, that’s right, Ekoda and all.

“Kaito!” Aoko called, shaking Shinichi from his thoughts. School had ended, no surprise considering his brain was miles away.

“You’re so spacy today! You forget where your locker is, no magic tricks, no comments about KID,” She listed off as they walked home from school. She whirled about and suddenly glared, “You even abandoned me during lunch!”

Geez, Shinichi was getting scolded a lot today by this girl. “Sorry, I forgot...” He really had no other excuse. He couldn’t claim to have been practicing a magic trick, since he had already attempted earlier and found himself under Aoko’s expectant gaze when she asked to see it. It wasn’t as if he could tell her the truth at this point. ‘Your good friend was actually this complete stranger for all of today,’ didn’t prompt a lot of confidence that there would be no consequences.

Shinichi sighed; in a way, it wasn’t anything new. If anything, it was exactly like his previous situation.

He smiled at Aoko. Hopefully it’d reassure her. “I’m really sorry. It won’t happen again,” At least, he hoped it wouldn’t.

He had hoped to calm Aoko’s nagging, but instead she stopped in her tracks. Shinichi turned to find her staring at him worriedly. “Kaito, did something happen? You don’t usually smile like— like that.”

Shinichi’s mouth was suddenly parched, his heart rising in his throat.

“It’s almost like you’re a different person today,” she said, eyebrows pulling together and there was that same sad, conflicted look in her eyes as the sunset cast dark shadows across her face.

He opened his mouth to reply, but shut it with an audible click. He didn’t know how to respond to that.

It really was just like before; that tugging in his chest. A part of him urging him, desperately, to tell her the truth, to tell her that her dear friend was replaced by a fake. Another, his cowardly side, could only tremble in fear at the consequences.

People always applauded him and called him brave after solving a case or accomplishing… whatever. It didn’t matter if he didn’t have that courage when it really counted. Over Aoko’s pensive silhouette, he could see Ran. The same worried expression, the same unconfirmed fear as she stared straight at him, as if searching for the truth in his eyes. And the same damned canyon of distance that suddenly separated them worlds away with just a few words. He might be living in another person’s body, but it was like he never left.

‘_C’mon, Shinichi, tell her. Don’t let it happen again. Don’t leave another nice girl like her in the dark.’_ He opened his mouth again to let the truth tumble from his lips. It’d ruin everything he had worked for throughout the day, but it’d finally lift that terrible dread that had been collecting in the pit in his stomach. ‘_You keep spouting on and on about how there’s only one truth and yet you only obscure it around the people you care about. Some detective you are.’_

He clenched his jaw, swallowing hard. _‘C’mon.’_

“Aoko,” he began, in a voice that wasn’t his own.

_‘Say it.’_

“I...”

But of course, like the damned coward he was, Shinichi was replaced by _The_ Kudo Shinichi, who was a detective first and a person second.

“I’m not feeling too great today.” Shinichi lied smoothly, letting a dopey, troubled smile take over his face as he scratched the back of his head, mussing the styled hair on the back of his neck. “I woke up late today with a headache and my stomach’s been bothering me all day today.”

“Oh really?” Aoko said, and Shinichi cast his gaze to the ground as she approached him and compared their forehead temperatures with the touch of a hand. “Hm, you don’t seem to have a fever...”

Shinichi met her eyes for a moment, and seeing that soft smile on her face, a smile just like Ran’s, the weight sitting in his stomach doubled. He entertained the idea for a moment that he might actually be feeling sick.

“I told you so, staying up late isn’t good for your health! If you really weren’t feeling that good, then you should’ve left school early or called in sick today!” She stepped a few paces ahead of Shinichi. “Let’s hurry home, so you can sleep early!”

Oh God, he couldn’t look her in the eyes. He felt the tugging in his chest settle coldly. “Yeah...” he replied half-heartedly.

She smiled so wholeheartedly, without doubt or uncertainty, only trust and kindness towards a puppet of her dear friend. “Do you want to do our homework together? Should make you porridge or something?” she suggested. She was so sweet, he swore his teeth ached a little.

Shinichi forced himself to smile.

Same old, same old, huh.

**Author's Note:**

> Been sitting on this draft for a long, long time.  
There's probably a bunch of mistakes buried in here.  
Tune in next time for Kaito to swear in a child's body :)


End file.
